草莓污视频导航

Nov. 19, 2020

Six nurse entrepreneurs you should know about

Meet alumni and students using their professional nursing experience and education to start and manage businesses in the health-care industry; leadership conference Nov. 27
Six 草莓污视频导航 Nurse Entrepreneurs
Six 草莓污视频导航 Nurse Entrepreneurs You Should Know About
Janessa Rauch, The Nurse Coach

Janessa Rauch, The Nurse Coach

Janessa Rauch, The Nurse Coach

Janessa Rauch is currently working toward听her master鈥檚 in nursing at 草莓污视频导航, exploring the self-care practices of paediatric oncology nurses. She also runs a nurse coaching business called ,听which is geared toward听health-care providers and professionals or educators and teachers. She is a founding executive board member and faculty at , an institute geared toward听the development and education of holistic nursing and nurse coaches, the first of its kind in Canada.

The exciting thing about听nurse coaching听is that听while it鈥檚 different from traditional nursing, it鈥檚听still very much in alignment with the nursing process,鈥 says Rauch. 鈥淥ver the last few years, I have truly begun to embrace the entrepreneurial mindset. I have created my own independent practice which has led me down some extraordinary roads.鈥

Rauch started in coaching a few years ago, when nurse coaching was in its infancy. She听completed a six-month intensive program, based in the U.S., to become a board-certified nurse coach. Currently, she sees clients privately and also does some听group coaching听with a team of听physicians passionate about lifestyle medicine. She says she loves being a听business mentor听and coach, working听with other nurses interested in exploring entrepreneurship.

鈥淓ntrepreneurship allows you to walk some amazing paths and you never quite know where you鈥檒l end up,鈥 she says. 鈥淏eing an entrepreneur has allowed听me the opportunity听to only take on work that interests me and that I am passionate about.鈥

For Rauch, the most satisfying aspect of being in business is 鈥渞ealizing that I am helping other nurses understand the importance of caring for themselves as much as they care for others and seeing nurses become excited about the possibility of creating independent practices of their own.鈥 听

Her advice for students around entrepreneurship:
鈥淔ind someone who has walked the path you want to take and share with them your dreams and passions. Don't be afraid to be creative!听Nurses are needed to be innovative and agents of change in our health-care system. Get curious and ask questions.鈥澨

Julia Imanoff, 惭狈鈥16, COLO Families Inc.

Julia Imanoff, 惭狈鈥16, COLO Families Inc.

Julia Imanoff, COLO Families Inc.

Julia Imanoff, 惭狈鈥16,is an educator and perinatal nurse specialist who's worked with organizations like Sick Kids Hospital, Ovarian Cancer Canada, the Canadian Red Cross, Canadian Association of Marriage and Family Therapists and Canadian Association of Perinatal and Women鈥檚 Health Nurses.

As a current PhD student in nursing, her research interests involve fostering healthy parent-child relationships focusing on experiences with mental health and birth. With fellow 草莓污视频导航 nursing instructor听Aaron Li, she recently co-founded a nurse-led social enterprise, ,听that supports parents, helps families develop meaningful connections and promotes healthy childhood development.听

While Imanoff says she never set out to become an entrepreneur, she started the business because it was a way to enact change.

鈥淚 wanted to see the work parents do be highly valued," says Imanoff.听"I wanted to see parents better supported. I wanted to see families become more connected and family relationships strengthened.

鈥淭his aspiration came from a combination of my clinical practice as a perinatal nurse, having my own children and becoming a parent, and working alongside world-renowned child and family researchers like (草莓污视频导航 nursing professors) Dr. Nicole Letourneau, PhD, and Dr. Nancy Moules, PhD.鈥

Her first step into entrepreneurship occurred after she mentioned her ideas to a colleague who suggested she look into Innovate Calgary. From there, she says it's been a rocky road running COLO Families during a pandemic, but one that鈥檚 full of valuable collaboration and partnerships.

鈥淭here are different reasons people may be drawn towards entrepreneurship,鈥 says Imanoff. 鈥淔or me, I tend to become energized when I feel I'm making a tangible difference in the lives of others and living into my values. The work I do with COLO Families does both for me. This work truly fuels me and gives me the tenacity to stick with it through many pivots and challenges.鈥

Her advice for students around entrepreneurship:
鈥淭ake that first step. If you are fortunate enough to study at 草莓污视频导航, there is a plethora of resources to support you in those first steps, from the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking听to Innovate Calgary.听Make connections. The path of entrepreneurship can be challenging and isolating. Start speaking to other entrepreneurs and find out their story, learn from their challenges and successes. There is a thriving network of amazing individuals across campus and throughout Calgary. Reach out and start making those connections (even virtually)!鈥

Leah Wuitschik, 叠狈鈥05, TallTrees Leadership庐

Leah Wuitschik, 叠狈鈥05, TallTrees Leadership庐

Leah Wuitschik, TallTrees Leadership

Throughout her nursing career, Leah Wuitschik,听叠狈鈥05,has worked in a variety of practice areas including acute care, infection prevention and control, health promotion and chronic disease management. She has more than 20 years of experience working in various leadership roles, in health care and in leadership development.

She holds a Master of Arts in Leadership and a graduate certificate in executive coaching from Royal Roads University. In 2013, she founded 听with her mother and fellow nurse, Carol Gray, BN鈥75, to offer leadership development and coaching, encouraging people to take听their performance to a new level.

鈥淭he beautiful thing about nursing is that there are endless opportunities out there to be innovative and to serve,鈥 says Wuitschik. 鈥淚鈥檝e always been the type of person to question everything and as I was working on my master鈥檚, I started to think about how I could serve nursing and health care in a different way. The desire to serve, while also being able to create something entirely new, was the driving force in becoming an entrepreneur.鈥

Wuitschik says she enjoys the flexibility of her work. 鈥淓very day is different for me. I could be coaching clients, developing and facilitating workshops, producing and hosting my podcast Central Line: Leadership in Healthcare, doing public speaking engagements, or writing articles on leadership for various publications. All this creates busy and engaging days.鈥

For her, it鈥檚 all about the feedback from her clients noting the change and progress that individuals and teams see from the leadership development and coaching.

鈥淲hen they share with me how they finally feel understood and valued, and that they now have a clear path forward to become the best leaders possible, I know I鈥檓 in the right place.鈥

Her advice for students around entrepreneurship:
鈥淭hink big! Don鈥檛 hold yourself back. There will always be a reason not to do something, but there are so many more important reasons to go out there and do it.鈥

Carol Gray, BN鈥75, TallTrees Leadership庐

Carol Gray, BN鈥75, TallTrees Leadership庐

Carol Gray, TallTrees Leadership

For more than three decades, Carol Gray,听BN鈥75, has worked in health care in various senior leadership roles and has led teams to implement province-wide innovative health programs and services across Alberta. She holds a graduate certificate in executive coaching from Royal Roads University.

鈥淟eading and supporting teams to deliver quality health programs and services for individuals and families fueled my passion for making a positive impact for those we serve,鈥 says Gray. 鈥淭hinking I would retire, I quickly wished to build on my experience and desire to continue to lead in an environment that offered creativity, complexity, innovation, learning and most important, being connected to health professionals again. The opportunity to be an entrepreneur was an exciting new venture.鈥

With her daughter, Leah Wuitschik, she founded which is dedicated to serving those who lead and work in health care or health-related fields, whether it be in hospitals, community, non-profit organizations, or the private sector. Through TallTrees, Gray and Wuitschik offer leadership development through workshops and webinars,听teaching and facilitating leadership graduate courses,听and providing learning resources including blogs, podcasts and newsletters.

鈥淗aving a nursing background has always served me well in former roles and currently as an entrepreneur,鈥 says Gray. She says what she enjoys most about her business is being to create a direction and process of how to best offer the best value to her clients.听 听

鈥淲orking with nurses and other professionals and being part of their leadership journey 鈥 it's so rewarding to see their growth and enthusiasm as they strive for greater success,鈥 says Gray. 鈥淚 am inspired when they describe their leadership and positive outcomes for team and organizational culture.鈥澨

Her advice for students around entrepreneurship:
鈥淒o the due diligence in making the decision. Take the leap.听Commit to continued learning and take on the adventure.鈥

Luz Alvizurez, BSN'08, BN鈥10, Lubdub Apparel

Luz Alvizurez, BSN'08, BN鈥10, Lubdub Apparel

Luz Alvizurez, Lubdub Apparel

Luz Alvizurez,听BSN'08, BN鈥10, has been working as a paediatrics nurse in Calgary for the last 10 years. She currently still works part-time as a nurse but also simultaneously runs 听,听where she designs and sells custom apparel for health-care professionals. She started the company four years ago, after returning to work from her second maternity leave, making custom t-shirts for herself and colleagues on the side.

I just wanted something comfortable to wear to work that wasn't always a scrub top,鈥 says Alvizurez. 鈥淚 wanted things that were a little bit more simple and modern, so it's to my taste, but also professional enough so you can wear it at work.鈥

Earlier this year, just as Alvizurez decided she would officially launch her company, the COVID pandemic hit. She decided to delay the launch and instead do a fundraiser, creating a Together Apart T-shirt with 100 per cent of the profits from the sale directed to the United Way of Calgary Covid-19 Community Response Fund.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 expect the number of orders I received,鈥 she says, adding more than 350 T-shirts have been ordered,听raising just under $6,000. She is planning to launch a third round of Together Apart T-shirts in support of United Way. Currently, she makes custom apparel for various units in the city and says while most of her customers are local, she鈥檚 now also selling to customers nationally and in the U.S. She's even looking to hire her first employee soon.

Being a nurse and being a mom is priority," says Alvizurez. "So if I can find a way to do that and still be able to realize these big dreams that I have for Lubdub, I鈥檒l keep working at it.鈥

Her advice for students around entrepreneurship:
鈥淒on鈥檛 hold yourself back. I was nervous to put myself out there. I was worried it might fail and worried that I might not have the balance. But jumping in with both feet was the best thing that I've done. Nursing听is wonderful and it will allow us the opportunity to seek out our dreams, given that we can work casually and in multiple sites and pick up as much shifts as we need or can.鈥

Amy Deagle, BN'06, International Network of Nurse Leaders

Amy Deagle, BN'06, International Network of Nurse Leaders

Amy Deagle,听International Network of Nurse Leaders

Amy Deagle,听BN'06, has spent most of her career working in rural communities, primarily in labour and delivery, women's health, primary care and in leadership roles. When she founded the (INNL) in 2018, it was to unite a community of nurses, to hone their leadership skills through coaching and courses and to help them tackle important causes in health care.

鈥淭he drive behind it was to get nurses to see themselves as leaders and to see where they could impact change within their own world,鈥 she says. Her favourite part of INNL is having conversations with nurses of all stripes which evolved into her Shift Change podcast. The first season of the podcast featured more than 30 episodes and over 15,000 downloads. Guests have ranged from nursing students to Howard Catton, chief executive officer of the International Council of Nurses.

鈥淚 wanted this place for nurses to learn about leadership, talk about leadership and change,鈥 says Deagle. 鈥淚t鈥檚 connecting me with so many amazing nurses so that I can share their stories.鈥

Deagle is also a provincial councillor for CARNA and holds a full-time role as director of health professions for the Rural Health Professions Action Plan (RhPAP). Under the INNL umbrella and collaborating with other nurses, she鈥檚 in the process of developing a new advisory collective and health-care consultancy called ChangeRx.听

鈥淭he thing with entrepreneurship, you have to be able to adapt and change,鈥 she says. 鈥淚f you treat entrepreneurship like an evolution, then everything you鈥檙e doing is just learning and getting better and growing. If you鈥檙e in the mindset of this as the first iteration, this works for now and it doesn鈥檛 fit anymore, that鈥檚 ok. It doesn鈥檛 mean it was a failure or that you didn鈥檛 make an impact in that space but instead, what鈥檚 the next step?鈥

Her advice for students around entrepreneurship:
Nursing opens so many doors that you don't even know as a student it's going to open for you. If you're bored in nursing, you're just in the wrong little piece of it. I have the nursing job that helps fund the start-up piece. Doing both takes some of the stress out of having to be financially successful right away so you can build it properly. If you have those inclinations of wanting to try something, find a mentor. But really chase it.鈥

On Nov. 27, 草莓污视频导航 Nursing is hosting a free virtual leadership conference called The Leader in All of Us. Imanoff, Gray, Wuitschik and Deagle are all speakers on the Leadership in Entrepreneurship and Innovation panel where they鈥檒l discuss leading beyond the status quo. Learn more and register for this conference.听